In this final post, I would like to talk about what I have learnt first and then the new ideas I have developed. The material is defined “anything that can be used to facilitate learning”. The core message conveyed here is “be used”.  According to this definition, the purpose of “being used” is very clear, which is to facilitate learning. Who uses the material? How is it used? When is it used? Since “anything” is a very general even intangible concept, what should be selected as material? However, probably, before answering these questions, the fundamental one is what contributes to successful learning? Therefore, at the end of this module, these questions should have been addressed.

In retrospect, what we have done revolves these questions. The first thing I must bear in mind is that nothing is born to be material unless there are tasks accompanying it. In other words, it is the exercises, tasks and activities generated from materials make learning take place.  I have realized the context and learning theories mainly determine the criteria of making, adapting and supplementing material with proper tasks. Therefore, there is no one-size-fits-all or magic wand for creating perfect material. However, there are procedures to follow or elements to consider before using the material.

In my first post, I addressed the need for authentic language and communicative activities. Now, I have realized the ambiguity and controversy of the term “authenticity”. Language input might not be authentic but students can produce authentic output with well-designed tasks. Likewise, communicative tasks can’t play their role without teachers’ sophisticated understanding of the learners, contexts and language.  These principles are also applied to the digital world.

Much attention has been paid to digital material with its advantage of providing multimodality of language input and detecting learners’ needs to personalize the materials. Such apps as Liulishuo, Baicizhan; Fundubbing are now extremely popular in China, which I didn’t notice until the last seminar. But the interesting thing is that the most successful APP will involve a real teacher (study advisor) to ensure the commitment to the course and offer help for learners who struggle with some content in a Wechat group, which do trigger my thinking about what is the role of digital material in effective learning?“product/content” or “processes/tasks”? I will keep exploring this in the future as currently different views are held from person to person.